Oh say, can you see?
by Stikibunn
Summary: When the bombs fell Carrie Dalaney, 4th grade teacher of Early Dawn Elementary was the last adult to leave Little Lamplight. 200 years later a group or abused children, fight back. They are called the Dawn's Light


Oh Say Can You See!

Author's note: The following story is not for the faint of heart. It concerns young children coping with terrible abuse through violence. The author does not condone any actions in this story and will not be accountable for any distress this story may cause.

Fallout is a copyright of Bethusa Softworks

Chapter 1: Raiding the Raiders

_2070: Lamplight Caverns Washington D.C_

_Carrie Dalaney, 22 year old school teacher knelt to speak a word to her charges, the whole of Early Dawn Elementary._

_For the past month since the lamplight caverns had shook during a school trip and the world had ended, the teachers and supervising parents had all left the cave to fetch help and none had returned. Carrie remembered what she had learned about radiation and figured the worst of the fallout would have settled after 2 weeks so she hoped she would be more successful. She smiled at the frightened children, the older ones soothing the younger ones. She spoke to her own class, 4D._

"_I'm going to get help," she said "I want you children to stay here. Don't let any grownups in until I get back!_

_The children looked ready to cry and she herself was trembling as she wrapped a blanket around herself and disappeared out into the sunlight, never to be seen again…_

195 years later, 5 years before Project Purity:

Lucy Littlething's arm ached.

It was hard for a child of 11 in the Capital Wasteland, even defending herself was neigh impossible and just to get to the point of being able to fire a combat shotgun without dislocating her arm and thankfully a crazy young girl in Canterbury Commons invented a shock absorption system for the butt, made from motorbike parts, reducing it's kickback to something she could handle and trimming the barrel to scale it down. It was her pride and joy, the envy of all the other children in Lamplight.

Lucy was no ordinary wasteland urchin, she was a member of Little Lamplight's very own girls only mercenary group the Dawn's Light, a group of Lamplighters who's thirst of adventure and wanderlust led them out into the world to defend the children of the wastes and bring them safely to Little Lamplight and punish those who harm the innocent little ones of the wastes.

Lucy was lying down on her belly, concealed by a small pile of concrete rubble before her. She spotted movement in the nearby ruins and she pressed the talk button on the communicator fitted to her combat helmet.

"Poppet here" she said to her comrades, also hiding in locations around the ruins they had found, "The target has just returned to his base. I see 3, no 4 hostages, I repeat 4 hostages, Over"

"Okie-dokie Poppet!" the overly cheerful voice on the other end replied, "The hostages're inside safely… Let's go!" Lucy nodded without realizing the lack of visual contact. "Aye. Engagin' combat procedures."

Lucy watched for an opening and ran for the ruins, covering behind the wall of the main building in the complex. It was a former military base, defiled by raider's markings and crude graffiti. One of the guards near her was smoking a cigarette. Lucy crept up behind him and silently she stabbed him in the back a spray of blood to her face indicating he was pierced through his heart. She took off her glasses and cleaned them as the second guard stood stunned for a moment. Although her eyes were blurry without the spectacles on she could still see well enough to throw her second knife while she used her free hand to clean her glasses. The knife had only wounded him and he started shouting, blowing her cover. She quickly pushed her still smeared glasses onto her nose and pulled out her modified shotgun and fired, causing his chest to splatter in an artistic way. "Now comes the fun part!" she said with an excited tone like she had been promised a trip to the cinema. She began to snigger evilly, the laugher escalating into a roaring peal of laugher as shots rang out around her, the other raiders now aware of her presence.

Other girls now appeared and opened fire on the raiders and one of them, a dark skinned pubescent in a green beret took a place on the other side of the door. The nodded to each other, then kicked the door open and darted out of the way of a shower of bullets. Lucy dodged in quickly to return fire the after counting the number of raiders she did a calculation on her fingers. "3 raiders each Katie!" she said cheerfully to her partner and quickly barrel rolled into the building, ducking behind a metal crate.

Raiders were quite mad, Lucy recalled. It was something they ate that had made them lose common sense and act like idiots. In combat this came out through a tendency to engage in melee combat, and her expectations were confirmed when a female raider leapt onto her box, her glazed over eyes showing she was high on Jet. The woman salivated. "Peekaboo!" she cried, brandishing a knife and laughing manically.

The woman started slashing with her knife and Lucy squirmed to dodge the blade. She could smell the stench of the raider's sweat and foul breath she was so close.

The raider woman's tank top was loose and low cut and se had no brassiere underneath to stop it sagging, leaving a large amount of cleavage. Without thinking Lucy grabbed a Frag Grenade and stuffed it into the gap between her breasts and leapt clear as the woman's torso exploded in a splatter of gore. She rolled with the small explosion and a shower of mess fell from the ceiling. She continued the roll to kick a second raider in the head and fired the shotgun into his chest as he hit the floor. She stood up smiling proudly and cleaned her glasses again. Behind her the remaining raider took aim at the back of her head and a shot rang out.

Lucy turned to see Katie, smiling with her 10mm pistol smoking and the raider, dead with a bullet in his head.

"Pay attention instead of showin' off," she said, smiling.

The children they had come to rescue would mostly be returned to their parents or close families. Only one of the 5 rescuees was alone in the world. The group split up. Lucy was assigned to bring one boy, a kid named Trent, back home to a town a place called Andale…


End file.
